Tuesday, 31 December 2013

27th SEA Games - the story (Part 1)

Liu Yang and I have returned from Myanmar and while we may not have won any medals, I am pretty satisfied with my play in general and our team work during the mixed transfer event. As the results often tell very different stories, I thought I'll give my own version of what exactly transpired during the events.

BLITZ

I finished 7th in the above event with 9/14, losing to all the players that finished above me apart from Megaranto Susanto from Indonesia. However, the cross table did not really tell the whole story as I had a real roller coaster ride throughout the event.

After 2 smooth wins in the first 2 rounds, I had the black pieces against the eventual winner, Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son from Vietnam, who incidentally finished 4th in the World Blitz Championships this year. I was perfectly aware who I was up against and my immediate aim was not to fall too far behind time and to obtain an easy and playable position.

The game started well after 1.d4 Nc6 2.d4 e5 3.Nf3 ed 4.Nxd4 Qh4?!. Truong Son was visibly surprised and thought for a minute here before unleashing the outrageous 5.g4!?!?! An exciting game soon ensued:

In round 4, I faced the Malaysian Lim Chuinn Hoong who I’ve faced several times in Sin-Mas matches over the years. From an equal-ish position where I was probably very slightly worse on the White side of an Italian Game, I managed to gain a positional edge after a couple of inaccuracies:
A game that I liked (ChessBase 12)

In the next round, I was getting squeezed by Ng Tze Han but somehow managed to survive to a drawn endgame. However, with a significant time disadvantage (30 seconds to his 45 or so), my hopes of salvaging a draw wasn’t huge until he made a tremendous slip and blundered in the pawn endgame. I only just managed to promote my extra pawn and mated him with 4 seconds to go.

So after 5 games, I had scored 4/5 but have yet to face 3 remaining Grandmasters. In round 6, I had the White pieces against the dangerous Nguyen Van Huy who is an excellent blitz player. After getting outmanoeuvred the entire game (again!), I again managed to survive to a clearly drawn endgame until I presented him with an early Christmas present by gifting him a whole rook.

This was a devastating loss in an extremely important game against a direct competitor for a medal. Naturally, I was disappointed but had to pick myself for the 4 remaining key encounters. In the next round, I faced a relentless Farid Firman Syah who calmly accepted my dubious exchange sacrifice and consolidated his position without too many problems and so after a fairly good start, I only had 4/7 to show for my efforts.

The next game was probably my best of the blitz event. I had previously prepared for Megaranto’s Alekhine in an older event and I was able to obtain an opening advantage. I managed to maintain control throughout the game, a rarity for me especially in a blitz game and the game eventually had a frantic finish with me barely surviving a last ditch attack and I even found mate with 8 seconds to go. This put me firmly back in contention as now just 2 wins against Mark Paragua and Rogelio Antonio will virtually assure me of a medal finish. A game that I liked (ChessBase 12)

For those who have been following my games regularly, you should know that Mark is not exactly my favourite opponent. I have a horrendous 0-5 score against him and on top of that, Mark is well known to be an excellent blitz player in the Philippines. I honestly didn’t fancy my chances and the plan was to avoid something mainstream and not to fall behind significantly in time.

The plan worked to perfection as after 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.e5!? de 5.Ne5, Mark was visibly slightly surprised and I soon attained a time advantage in an unclear position. In time trouble, Mark blundered a pawn and I was cruising comfortably to the full point. And then, disaster struck:
A game that I liked (ChessBase 12)

After the game, Mark gentlemanly apologised (he certainly wasn't obliged to) and admitted he was lucky to win this. While I was naturally disappointed at losing my medal chances once and for all, I appreciated the gesture and this shows that Grandmasters are not just good at chess but also have very good manners.

The rest of the tournament was purely academic as my medal chances were essentially over. Still, I chalked up a score of 9/14 and 7th position, finishing behind the 2 representatives from the top 3 countries (Vietnam, Philippines and Indonesia). Truong Son showed why he is one of the best blitz players in the world by slicing through the field with a tremendous score of 13/14 while his very likeable compatriot, Nguyen Van Huy finished with the silver medal. Joey Antonio from the Philippines finished 3rd.